SMELLS LIKE GEN X BLOG
Explore the written archive for 70s nostalgia, 80s nostalgia, and 90s nostalgia across music, movies, TV shows, toys, commercials, trends, and the weird pop-culture debris that never fully left your brain.
Use this page as the main written gateway into Smells Like Gen X: start with a decade hub, follow a topic lane, search the archive, or jump straight into the latest post.
Looking for a specific year, song list, movie countdown, TV ranking, or toy post? Search the archive directly instead of scrolling the whole feed.
The blog works best when you use the decade hubs as your map. Start with the 70s, jump into the flagship 80s hub, or head into the expanding 90s archive.
Start here for 70s songs, movies, TV, toys, and the slower, stranger, more analog version of Gen X memory.
Big hooks, bigger movies, iconic toy aisles, prime-time TV, mall culture, and the deepest nostalgia hub on the site.
Alt-rock, sitcom empires, CDs, snack-branding overload, holiday toy panic, and the polished late-era Gen X archive.
These topic lanes route into the main category hubs, so visitors can browse the archive by what they actually care about.
Start here for year-end countdowns, chart rewinds, radio nostalgia, and the songs that permanently colonized your brain.
Dive into year-by-year movie countdowns, box office rewinds, poster-wall nostalgia, and video-store-era comfort watches.
Network giants, sitcom empires, Nielsen-era countdowns, forgotten shows, and the TV memories that still feel weirdly personal.
Holiday toy panic, weird products, year-by-year toy posts, and the kind of childhood plastic that still lives in your head rent-free.
These are the strongest written entry points into the current Smells Like Gen X archive.
The strongest decade page on the site right now, with clear paths into songs, movies, TV, toys, and broader 80s nostalgia.
One of the best category hubs on the site, with dynamic year browsing for top songs of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Peak late-90s network power, Seinfeld fallout, ER dominance, and one of the strongest single-year TV entry points.
Fresh nostalgia, deep cuts, countdowns, and beautifully unnecessary rewinds across the Gen X archive.
The top TV shows of 1971 reveal a prime-time lineup getting more recognizably 70s — with medical dramas, cop shows, star variety, and network movie events taking over the dial.
Read more →The top TV shows of 1970 capture a television world still ruled by westerns, variety giants, family comfort, and old-school star power—right before the 1970s fully changed the channel.
Read more →From Kramer vs. Kramer and The Amityville Horror to Rocky II, Alien, Apocalypse Now, and The Muppet Movie, these were the biggest box office hits of 1979 ranked by North American gross for films first released that year.
Read more →From Grease and Superman to Animal House, Heaven Can Wait, and Halloween, these were the biggest box office hits of 1978 ranked by North American gross for films first released that year.
Read more →From Star Wars and Smokey and the Bandit to Close Encounters, Saturday Night Fever, and Annie Hall, these were the biggest box office hits of 1977 ranked by North American gross for films first released that year.
Read more →From Rocky and King Kong to The Omen, All the President’s Men, and Silver Streak, these were the biggest box office hits of 1976 ranked by North American gross for films first released that year.
Read more →From Jaws and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to Dog Day Afternoon, Shampoo, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, these were the biggest box office hits of 1975 ranked by North American gross for films first released that year.
Read more →From Blazing Saddles and The Towering Inferno to Young Frankenstein, Earthquake, and The Godfather Part II, these were the biggest box office hits of 1974 ranked by North American gross for films first released that year
Read more →From The Exorcist to American Graffiti, these were the biggest box office hits of 1973. This Smells Like Gen X countdown ranks the top 10 movies of the year by North American box office for films first released in 1973.
Read more →From The Godfather to The Poseidon Adventure, Cabaret, and Deliverance, here are the top 10 movies of 1972 ranked by North American box office, with deeper nostalgia, cast highlights, and why these films still matter.
Read more →From Fiddler on the Roof to The French Connection, Dirty Harry, and A Clockwork Orange, here are the top 10 movies of 1971 ranked by North American box office, with deeper nostalgia, cast highlights, and why these films still matter.
Read more →From Love Story to Airport, MASH*, and Woodstock, here are the top 10 movies of 1970 ranked by North American box office, with deeper nostalgia, cast highlights, and why these films still matter.
Read more →DON’T MISS THE REWIND
Countdowns, forgotten media, weird rabbit holes, and peak Gen X nostalgia across every category.